Department of Laboratorial Science and Technology & Vaccine Research Center, School of Public Health, Peking University, China.
Department of Laboratorial Science and Technology & Vaccine Research Center, School of Public Health, Peking University, China.
Vaccine. 2019 Aug 23;37(36):5270-5275. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.07.052. Epub 2019 Jul 22.
A vaccine manufacturer in China and regulatory authorities have been the focus of widespread outrage due to a vaccine scandal. We conducted a rapid survey during a time of intense mainstream and social media attention to determine whether the public's confidence in vaccines was affected.
We selected 7 cities that were not involved in the scandal as the setting for the survey, which was conducted in August 2018. We used a convenience sampling strategy to select subjects in urban streets and rural villages for a face-to-face questionnaire-based survey. Subjects were asked to describe their levels of confidence on a scale from 0 to 9, in which 0 means no confidence, and 9 means very confident. Respondents were asked to assess confidence for two points in time - recollection of their level of confidence before hearing about the scandal and their level of confidence at the time of the survey.
In total, 683 individuals were invited to participate and 591 questionnaires were completed, for a response rate of 86.5%. Among respondents, 86.80% had heard of the vaccine scandal. The most common channel for hearing about the scandal was social media (e.g., WeChat), 40.6% of respondents. Regardless of gender, age, education level, province, town or country, or having children under 15 years old, respondents reported a significant decrease in confidence in domestically-produced vaccines. The mean pre-scandal confidence level recalled by respondents was 6.7, and the mean confidence level at the time of the survey was 3.2. Confidence in vaccine manufacturers, institutes for drug control, and drug supervision authorities decreased from 5.6 to 6.0 before the vaccine scandal to 2.0-3.2 at the time of the survey. Confidence in vaccine manufacturers decreased the most, from 5.6 before the scandal to 2.0; confidence in institutes for drug control decreased from 5.8 before the scandal to 2.6 at the time of the survey.
This study demonstrated that public confidence was significantly affected by the vaccine scandal, particularly for vaccine producers and drug regulators. The decline in confidence is a reminder to governments that in order to build public confidence for vaccination, regulators have to reform regulatory practices and manufacturers have to ensure vaccine quality.
中国的一家疫苗制造商和监管机构因疫苗丑闻而成为众矢之的。我们在主流媒体和社交媒体高度关注的时期进行了一项快速调查，以确定公众对疫苗的信心是否受到影响。
我们选择了 7 个没有卷入丑闻的城市作为调查地点，调查于 2018 年 8 月进行。我们采用便利抽样策略，在城市街道和农村地区选择对象进行面对面的问卷调查。要求对象在 0 到 9 的范围内描述他们的信心程度，其中 0 表示没有信心，9 表示非常有信心。要求受访者评估两个时间点的信心水平——回忆他们在听到丑闻之前的信心水平和调查时的信心水平。
共有 683 人受邀参加，591 份问卷完成，应答率为 86.5%。在受访者中，86.80%听说过疫苗丑闻。最常见的听说丑闻的渠道是社交媒体（如微信），占 40.6%。无论性别、年龄、教育程度、省份、城镇或农村，或是否有 15 岁以下的孩子，受访者都报告称对国产疫苗的信心显著下降。受访者回忆起的丑闻前信心水平的平均值为 6.7，调查时的信心水平平均值为 3.2。疫苗制造商、药品监管机构和药品监管机构的信心从丑闻前的 5.6 降至调查时的 2.0-3.2。疫苗制造商的信心下降幅度最大，从丑闻前的 5.6 降至 2.0；药品监管机构的信心从丑闻前的 5.8 降至调查时的 2.6。
本研究表明，疫苗丑闻显著影响了公众信心，尤其是对疫苗生产商和药物监管机构。信心的下降提醒政府，为了建立公众对疫苗接种的信心，监管机构必须改革监管做法，制造商必须确保疫苗质量。
